"I thought everyone else was so beautiful and I wasn't. Sometimes I would skip meals. I'd always try to push my tummy inwards, sometimes I'd lay the heavier of my school books on it to try and push it down," the actress recalls, "I did things in secret. I hid food in my room so I would feel more empowered by not eating something so close to me. I tried to be a tom-boy because it meant that I could wear baggy clothes. I thought I was disgusting. I hated myself."

Despite living with BDD since her pre-teens, the actress says her hardest struggle came in the months after her parents split. Unable to cope emotionally with the drastic change and already scarred by the years of fighting, Eliska says that at just thirteen years old, she found herself leaving home only to return late at night, often drunk. She recalls "drinking alone in my room" and dabbling in destructive behavior as a coping mechanism while assimilating into her new life. Among her concerning social behavior was a dependent relationship with anorexia nervosa.

While the actress says that today, she is "a much stronger person, I'm confident, I'm comfortable with myself," she doesn't deny feeling vulnerable. "I'm a human being and I have off days. It's nice to have somebody that loves me around to pick me up once and a while and tell me I'm beautiful."

The talented actress admits that life after anorexia is "difficult" but says she is a better person today because of her life lessons.">                              

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